The Son of Sobek
by GingeredFangirl
Summary: The same story, but told from Percy's POV, which I always thought would have been more interesting for it anyway. Rated T just to be safe, I may decide to swear in it later... Yep, I did decide to swear…on multiple occasions.
1. A Crocodile Eats Guido's Second Cousin

**Have you ever wondered what actually went on over on the Greek side of the ****_Son of Sobek_****? This is my take on how they dealt with it. I'm also seriously dying right now waiting for City of Heavenly Fire and Blood of Olympus. Like, why do they have to take so long? They must take lessons from each on how to torture their readers -_-**

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It all started when a crocodile ate Guido's second cousin.

I was in my cabin, asleep, for the record, when a loud thumping sounded outside on my wooden porch. I guessed it was Blackjack heralding some sort of marine emergency again, so I rolled out of bed and stumbled to open the door.

What I didn't expect, however, was a pure white pegasus squealing with excitement, his flying hooves coming a little too close to taking my head with them.

"Woah!"

_Yo, boss!_

"Guido, I was asleep." I sighed. "What's the problem?"

Only then did I look round him and notice the chaos our camp was in. Pegasi were running wild, yelling excitedly and shrieking in my head, which made me wince. I saw Leo dive into the Hephaestus cabin with his pants on fire, closely followed by a swearing Jake Mason. Hazel, being obsessed with horses, was trying to calm down the poor creatures, but pegasi can be off their rocker when they get down to it.

I dodged past a sweaty horse flank and ran into the middle of the clearing. "Guys! Slow down a minute!" Nothing happened. The pegasi were still screeching about crocodiles. I had to tell them to lay off the Party Ponies' root beer.

Annabeth ducked and dodged to my side. "What now, Seaweed Brain? What're they saying?"

"I honestly have no idea."

Piper appeared on my other side, her face bleeding and her knife drawn. "What are they saying?" she yelled over the thunder of hooves and high-pitched whinnies.

"Something…about a crocodile."

"What?!" Annabeth must have thought I'd really lost it this time. I could see it in her face.

Piper nodded grimly. "Well, I saw one in the dagger." She was always careful to never call it _my dagger _or _my knife_. I often wondered why. Without another word, she turned to the panicked herd and yelled "_HEY!"_

Her charmspeak was enough that everyone in camp froze for a moment. Leo peeked back through the door of his cabin. Blackjack and Porkpie stopped chewing the grass roof off the Demeter cabin. Guido quit yelling about his second cousin or something like that. The chestnut coloured Bracken (why did female pegasi have such normal names?) finished her rant about oversized swamp animals. Hazel blew a sigh of relief and Jason landed on the roof of Zeus' cabin.

"Guys," I said again. "What's up?"

I was instantly assaulted by a barrage of complaints, thrown at me from every winged horse in the camp. I winced, holding my ears. "One at a time!"

Guido stepped up, prancing and snorting. _Y'see boss, we were having fun tonight, just horsing around, when this huge croc jumps out and snaffled Larry. WHAM! Like he was a donut or somethin'. Right out the river like a jack-in-the-box._

_It's true. _Blackjack supplied. _Swear we've not had any root beer, boss._

_Yeah! _Bracken shrieked. _It was huge. One minute there was nothing and then the next Larry was gone._

"Who's Larry?" This earned me a withering look from Annabeth, who had no clue what Guido had just said. "Uh…I mean, what was the monster like?"

_He was my second cousin, boss._

"Stop calling me boss! And…the monster was your second cousin?"

Annabeth huffed. Impatient girl. True, it was like three in the morning and the whole camp was only able to hear me talking. Somewhere Leo would be laughing his little head off.

_No, man! Larry was my cuz! The monster was a gigantinormous crocodile._

"Right." Sighing, I relayed the conversation to the rest of the camp. Annabeth's brow furrowed deeper as I went on.

"A crocodile? A giant one."

"Yep." I turned to the pegasi. "Guys, go to the stables"

_Aw, c'mon!_

_We didn't do anything wrong!_

_Meh, the stables._

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, the stables. One, it's probably not safe outside camp with a monster roaming around. Two, you may not have noticed, but you kind of trashed my camp. Three, Chiron will probably want to talk to you about both of the above."

Muttering obscene things (they have a worse mouth than Arion sometimes), all of them trudged off to the stables, their wings hanging limply by their sides.

Jason appeared next to me, taking Piper's hand, with Leo, Frank and Hazel not far behind. Ever since we'd returned from Greece, we'd always looked to each other more than anyone else. We were a close-knit group; nothing could break us apart. I was only vaguely aware of the rest of the camp watching us furtively.

Frank shrugged. "It doesn't sound like any monster I've ever heard of. Maybe it's not even Greek?"

We all turned to Annabeth, who frowned. "I don't know. There's nothing I can think of that involves a _crocodile_. They all live in Africa, around Egypt or Kenya. Places like that."

Now they all turned to me. I wasn't the oldest (that would be Annabeth, as she keeps reminding me) but everyone seemed to think I had to make big decisions. I nodded. "We'll give it a couple of days. If it's a monster, it shouldn't be able to get past the borders. We'll have to keep the pegasi inside camp until they calm down, in case they stampede Manhattan. Issue a warning to everyone. Careful up in the woods and around water and avoid going outside camp unless it's absolutely necessary."

Everyone murmured in agreement before turning to the rest of the camp. Jason naturally took charge, telling all the bleary-eyed demigods what we'd just decided.

Annabeth took my hand. "We'd better tell Chiron."

The lights up at the Big House were still out. "How on earth did he miss all of that?"

She chuckled, her grey eyes lighting up. "Quick. Go before Katie starts mouthing off about your pegasus eating her roof."

"He's not my pegasus, braniac."

"Whatever, Seaweed Brain."

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**So what'd you think? Obviously there's going to be another chapter where Percy actually meets Carter and I'll try to make it as parallel as possible to the actual story, although it will be with Percy's narrative.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Ciara**


	2. I Find Something The Crocodile Threw Up

**Chapter two, guys! Thanks to beanea for reviewing the last chapter! Carter and Percy actually meet here, but it's still not the whole thing, it'd be too long. Thank for reading, everyone**

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Three days later and that monster was still there. Chiron had forbidden anybody to go looking for it after Leo had persuaded Piper, the Stolls and a couple of other Hermes kids to go after it with him. Long story short, if Jason hadn't been flying around looking out for it anyway it could have gotten very messy, but they all ended up fine, although Jason officially grounded Piper.

The pegasi were all in a state of shock, bless them. Hazel sat in the stables with them all day, trying to make them feel better, but it's hard when you can't speak to them.

Turned out the crocodile had been in that swamp for a couple of weeks, eating birds and other wildlife. The mortals had begun to give it names, such as Long Island's Swamp Monster. Please.

After three days, I cracked. This monster was carving a path of destruction through Long Island. I took it quite personally, since it was so close to my home. Even the mortals knew something was going on. I had to do something.

Inside the stables at camp it's dry and warm. It smells of horse, hay and sawdust, which bring back a few memories of our quest to Greece. My face warmed as I remembered falling asleep with Annabeth in the hold.

On that day, Hazel was on patrol, so it was empty. I went up to Guido. His wings hung by his side like a dog holding its tail between its legs.

"Hey, man."

_'Sup, boss?_

"I just wondered if you could tell me what happened one last time?"

_Not much to tell. We were flying, not low, mind you, but low enough. We were just trotting over a swamp when-_

"Hold up. A swamp?"

_Yep. The one just south of here. It's quite deep._

Blackjack cut in. _Dunno whether it's still there or not now, but it's worth a try. Need a lift?_

I grinned. This horse knew me too well. "Sure thing, Blackjack. I'll get you some donuts afterwards."

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Soon we were soaring through the air. I'd made Blackjack take me into the woods so no one would see us leave. Of course, it was only a matter of time before Annabeth found us both missing and figured out where I'd gone.

Below us, the swamp glistened brown, with long grass poking through the mud and sticks lying here and there. It looked pretty miserable, but I could feel _something_ down there. It didn't feel Greek or even Roman, but it felt ancient and powerful. This was the right place.

"Blackjack," I called. "Set me down over there." I indicated a gnarled tree in the middle of a large mudflat.

_You sure, boss?_

'Yeah. You probably don't want to stick around for this."

The other slightly worrying thing was how close it was to the line of houses with little grey roofs and square gardens. The monster may have a taste for horse now, but what happened if he decided he wanted mortals? They were there for the taking.

I waved Blackjack away, promising I'd whistle when I was done and then we'd stop off at a donut store, and watched him swoop away, becoming smaller and smaller until he seemed more like a bird than a horse. I sighed, and went looking for the crocodile.

The mud gave me no trouble as I was walking, but it would probably make it hard for mortals to get anywhere. Hopefully they avoided this swamp.

I'd been walking in circles for about fifteen minutes, wondering how I was going to find the thing, when something exploded out of the water a few hundred feet in front of me. Impatient, I summoned the water around me and made it carry me to where I'd last seen it. It was lying half in, half out of the water, its eyes half closed.

First off, it was _huge_. Mythical or not, there had to be some sort of rule against monsters getting that big. Sure, I'd heard about the encounter the other five had had with Sciron (Hazel and Jason had described it enough times) and this crocodile had to be related to the turtle. It was ridiculous.

It was oily and blackish-green, with thick leathery skin. Taking my chances, I swung Riptide, only to have it glance off its scales. Yellow eyes snapped open, taking me in.

_Crap. _I thought. What a wasted chance. It knew I was here now, and I'd lost the element of surprise. It lumbered to its feet, and towered over me, easily as tall as the cabins back at camp.

The only thing was that it didn't seem in much of a hurry to attack me. Maybe I looked too stringy or smelt like seafood. I've been told that before.

But no, it was hunched over on itself, like it had eaten something bad. Maybe Larry was coming back to haunt him. I took a cautious step forward, and its head whipped round to face me. Rows of crooked, yellow teeth were bared as it snarled.

Without thinking, I slid in between its legs and stabbed up the back end. Elegant, Percy, I can hear you saying, but it worked! The monster's underside was soft and fleshy, and Riptide sank in easily. I rolled out of the way and waited for it to crumble to dust. What actually happened was more like this.

The crocodile jerked up, until it was standing on two feet, and roared. Retching and jerking, it threw something up, then dove into the water again. Why hadn't it disintegrated? The something-it-had-thrown-up moved.

I raised Riptide, ready to fight yet another monster or calm down a raging pegasus. Instead, I saw an African-American boy stand up, coughing and spluttering, wiping crocodile gunk from his face. Then he saw me.

For a moment we just stared at each other. He took in my T-shirt (which wasn't very readable), my necklace and Riptide. Somehow I knew he could see them. And why was he inside a crocodile?

The strangest was yet to come. He was holding a boomerang-like thing, which I had never seen in my life before, and a sword. But the sword wasn't straight like mine. It was curved, and only sharpened on one side.

He spoke, his voice cool and even. "The crocodile. Where did it go?"

A small thank you might be in order. "You're welcome."

"What?"

"I stuck it up the rump." I showed the movement with Riptide. "That's why it vomited you up. So, you're welcome. What were you doing here?"

He turned and snapped at me. "I was resting." He was clearly ticked off. "What do you _think_ I was doing? Now, who are you, and why are you fighting my monster?"

That told me all I needed to know. This guy must know Sciron. "_Your_ monster? Look, man, I don't know who you are, but that crocodile has been terrorizing Long Island for weeks. I take that kind of personally, as this is my home turf. A few days ago, it ate one of our pegasi."

His eyes widened. "Did you say _pegasi_?"

I ignored that. He clearly wasn't some innocent mortal. "Is it your monster or not?"

"I don't _own _it!" he snapped. "I'm trying to _stop_ it! Now, where-"

"The croc headed that way." I pointed with Riptide, only just realizing what direction that was. Towards the houses. "I would already be chasing it, but you surprised me."

I turned to look at the guy, really looked at him. He was smaller and younger than me, maybe about fifteen, with skin the colour of coffee. He was wearing the kind of clothes you'd wear to a karate class; thin, white linen. His sword looked like one of those you'd see in some foreign movie, out in the Middle East or something. He had to be a half-blood. Perhaps he'd been sent on some stupid quest by Lupa? He didn't feel Roman though, not like Frank, Hazel and Jason did, with that air of authority. He seemed like a fighter though, someone ready for combat.

I shook my head. "I give up. Son of Ares? You've got to be a half-blood, but what happened to your sword? It's all bent."

"It's a _khopesh._" He growled. "It's supposed to be curved." His eyes narrowed with hatred, like I'd just insulted him. Was he really that opposed to Ares? And what was that word he had said? Copesh?

"Just get out of here. I have a crocodile to catch."

Excuse me? "Dude, _I _have a crocodile to catch. Last time you tried, it _ate _you. Remember?"

His fists clenched. "I had everything under control. I was about to summon a-" He made a noise that sounded like a sneeze, like _khefa_. I was about to say _bless you_ when a huge blue fist appeared out of nowhere and sent me flying backwards across the mud, minus my sneakers.

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**So, what'd you think? Obviously there's going to be at least another chapter, where they actually fight the crocodile. I've got a copy of the Son of Sobek beside me as I'm writing this, so I can copy the dialogue.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**-Ciara**


	3. I Become A Unicorn

**Thanks for waiting patiently for this chapter and the last one, FF has been glitching for the last day and I wasn't able to edit any of my stories -_-**

**I'm so sorry this is taking so long. At first I imagined it would be only two chapters, but at the minute I'm up to four, possibly five, so just bear with me?**

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I lay stunned for a minute, breathing in swamp water, before thinking _well, that settles it_.Had he just summoned fist from thin air? There was no way this guy was Greek. He wasn't a demigod either. Which, in my mind, made him an enemy. I surfaced, looking around for him. He was wading through the mud, searching.

"Man, I'm sorry!" he called, looking a little worried, but I was too riled up to notice that. I called to the water. He took another slow step forward. "Are you-?"

My wave hit him square-on and sent him stumbling backwards, swearing. He leapt up, but I was already flying through the air towards him, slashing Riptide. He deflected it, but only just, his curved sword ringing with the impact. It really was badly designed.

It wasn't hard. Within a few moves I had him beat. I lunged for his head. "Now I get it. You're some kind of monster."

He blocked the strike again, which surprised me, but he wasn't managing to do much attacking. "I'm not a monster," he gasped.

Sure, I could believe that. I went for his torso this time, but he caught the strike with his boomerang thing and sent a jolt of energy coursing up my arm. I backed off, but not before I'd seen sparks floating around me. Sparks? Really?

"You said the crocodile was yours," I challenged. Maybe I could get him to slip up. "You lost your pet, I suppose." Then a horrible thought hit me. "Maybe you're a spirit from the Underworld, come through the Doors of Death?" This could not be happening.

His eyes bugged. _Gotcha_, I thought. I waved my hand and the river switched direction, pulling him to the ground again. I ran for him, ready to send him back to Hades the hard way. Meanwhile, he reached into the little satchel he'd been carrying the whole time.

I raised Riptide, swinging for his head, but he thrust his hand out, holding a small piece of rope, and yelled "_TAS!_"

What?!

Before I could do anything, my sword had cut into his wrist and the rope flew from his grasp, lengthening, and wrapped round my arm before attaching Riptide to my head.

Great.

I tried pulling at it, but they refused to move. It was almost like they were magic. I plopped down in the water, waiting for Rope Boy to remember I was still here. After a minute he pressed a piece of thick paper to his wrist and looked up at me. His eyes sparked with amusement, and I couldn't blame him. I probably looked like a unicorn.

I sighed. "I'm really starting to hate you."

"Hate _me_?" He sounded incredulous. "I'm gushing blood here! And you started all this by calling me a half-blood!"

I snorted and rose to my feet. "Oh, please. You can't be mortal. If you were, my sword would've passed right through you. If you're not a spirit or a monster, you've got to be a half-blood. A rogue demigod, I'd guess."

He stared. "So when you said 'half-blood'…"

I gave him the please-tell-me-you're-not-that-stupid look, copied from Annabeth. "I meant _demigod_. Yeah. What did you _think_ I meant?" Before he could answer, I took him in again. He didn't look fully African American; there could be some white blood there as well. Oh! So when I said 'half-blood' the first time…

Great. Nice going, Perce. No wonder he'd looked at me like that.

"What are you?" he demanded. "Part combat magician, part water elementalist? What gnome are you with?"

Did he actually just say that? I laughed out loud. "Dude, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't hang out with gnomes. Satyrs, sometimes. Even Cyclopes. But not gnomes."

His eyes widened suddenly, like he'd realised something. Not just that, he looked like I'd just told him something that could shock him back to Tartarus. He swallowed. "Look, I'm sorry about hitting you with that fist spell." Spell? "It was an accident. But the thing I don't understand…it should have killed you. It didn't. That doesn't make sense."

Story of my life, bro. "Don't sound so disappointed. But, while we're on the subject, you should be dead too. Not many people fight like you do. And my sword should have vaporized your crocodile."

"For the last time, it's not _my_ crocodile."

I didn't believe him. "Okay, whatever. The point is I stuck that crocodile pretty good, but I just made it angry. Celestial bronze should've turned it to dust."

"Celestial bronze?" His face slackened, and I could see he was actually telling the truth. He wasn't Greek. He had no idea what on Olympus I was on about.

From the direction of the houses came a child's voice, screaming. We both jumped round to face it, before whipping our heads back to face each other.

"We've got to stop the crocodile." he said.

"Truce?" I asked.

"Yeah," he agreed. "We can continue killing each other after the crocodile is taken care of."

"Deal. Now, could you please untie my sword hand from my head? I feel like a freaking unicorn."

He did a double take when he saw I was still dry, but turned to his injured wrist instead. Whoever this guy was, he'd clearly seen stranger things. I got the river to drop off my shoes for me, and wrapped a strip of some fabric round his wrist. He took a swig of nectar (so was he Greek or not?) and we jogged off to find the crocodile.

Soon, though, he fell behind, breathing hard. I remembered the sucking mud – it gave me no trouble – and slowed down a little for him.

"So," he gasped. "What's your name."

I gave him a look. "I'm not sure I should tell you. Names can be dangerous." Which, for a demigod anyway, is absolute centaur poop, but it sounded pretty good.

Strangely, he looked like he agreed with me. "Fair enough. I'll go first. I'm Carter."

It was such an ordinary name, it surprised me. I let my guard down a little. "Percy."

We finally came to the end of the marsh, right in front of the houses I'd noticed earlier. More than one kid was screaming now. We had to act fast.

"Just to warn you, you can't kill the monster."

"Watch me."

"No, I mean it's _immortal_."

Pfft. "I've heard that before. I've vaporized plenty of _immortals _and sent them back to Tartarus." Or simply back into a slumber, in Gaia's case. I shuddered, remembering. That had _not_ been pretty.

I was so lost in my thoughts I didn't notice Carter huffing and puffing to catch up with me as we scaled a hill.

"No," he protested. "This monster is a _petsuchos _ – a son of Sobek."

I didn't really register what he'd said. "Who's Sobek?" I asked absentmindedly.

"Lord of crocodiles. Egyptian god."

I froze, turning to face him slowly. _Egyptian._ No wonder he fought strange. Carter's dark brown eyes closed off, like he'd let something slip. I remembered Annabeth's wrinkled nose and pursed lips. _They all live in Africa, around Egypt or Kenya._ Something was very wrong here. My eyes fell on his curved sword.

"Where are you from? Honestly."

"Originally? Los Angeles. Now I live in Brooklyn."

Thanks. "So this monster, this pet-suck-o or whatever-" I really tried to pronounce it, but I have trouble with Greek words on a good day.

"_Petsuchos_," he corrected. "It's a Greek word, but the monster is Egyptian. It was like the mascot of Sobek's temple, worshipped as a living god."

I wondered if he could see the link, or if my mind was just wandering. Stupid ADHD. Instead, I grunted. "You sounded like Annabeth."

"Who?"

How to explain her? My best friend for five years? No, she was more than that. My girlfriend? That seemed inadequate, considering all we'd been through. Losing each other, more than once. Going through Tartarus. I shuddered inwardly. Rather than getting into specifics, I waved it aside. "Nothing. Just skip the history lesson." We were wasting time. "How do we kill it?"

"I told you-"

Someone screamed. Then we heard a _BANG_ and then a _CRUNCH_, like something huge had just sat on a car. Or stepped on it.

We shot up the hill, vaulting over a fence that probably belonged to somebody, and found ourselves in the middle of a road. It wasn't a main road, it was one of those dead end things that have some French name. Annabeth would know.

The crocodile was busy eating a green Prius, a lot like Paul's, so didn't see us appear from someone's garden. I could see a bumper sticker reading _My Poodle is Smarter than your Honour Student. _Possibly it had some sort of vendetta against poodles. That I could understand.

Whatever. The crocodile was even bigger than I'd first thought. He must have been hunkered down in the water the first time, because he was easily as tall as a truck, never mind the cabins at camp. His leathery skin was gleaming with oil and water. Every time he turned to attack the car from a different angle, his tail would knock another car flying. He was dripping brackish water that collected by the kerb and started trickling down the road. I could tell it didn't come from the swamp.

The strangest thing was the necklace. It was gold, with precious stones that would make Hazel jealous, made from a complicated pattern of chain links. It hung round his neck, like he was some kind of wannabe gangster croc.

Suddenly he lunged at the Prius, snapping it in half. Car parts went flying.

Carter and I turned to look at in disbelief. We were about to work out a plan when several kids popped up from behind some of the cars and charged the monster, screaming their heads off.

I couldn't believe my eyes. They couldn't be older than ten or eleven, but they were lobbing water balloons and spraying Super Soakers. They clearly knew _something_ was there.

But they couldn't know what it really was. Perhaps they thought they were just pulling a prank on a truck driver that got lost down their lane or something. Whatever they thought, it wasn't safe. We had to get them away.

I heard Carter swallow, and then he sprinted towards them. "Get away from it! Run!" The crocodile's yellow eyes narrowed when it saw him. I was about to call his name when he pulled out his boomerang and threw it at its head, yelling, "_Sa-mir!_"

Excuse me?

* * *

**So, how was that? Like I said before, expect at least another chapter, possibly two. Please review, all your nice comments make my day!**

**Thanks for reading.**

**-Ciara**


	4. Carter Becomes a Bird (twice)

**Me: Hi everyone!**

**FF: **Mrs Weasley voice** Where ****_have_**** you been?**

**Me: Ummm…sorry?**

**Me: **dodges various thrown swords, javelins, daggers, wands, staffs, ****_shabti_**** and writing utensils****

**Me: Here's a chapter… **runs and hides****

* * *

Whatever he did, it worked.

His boomerang smacked the crocodile square on its nose, making blue light flicker up and down its oversized body. The monster squirmed in obvious discomfort, but it didn't seem to do much else.

One thing it _did _do was switch the crocodile's focus from the kids, now diving for cover behind the cars again, to us.

I whistled, impressed. "Well you certainly got his attention."

"Yeah." Carter agreed, breathless.

I was still all for the good old-fashioned approach. "You sure we can't kill him?"

"Yeah." He sounded annoyed to repeating the same thing over and over, but resigned, like he did it a lot. "Even if you could destroy his body, he would just reappear somewhere nearby. That necklace? It's enchanted with the power of Sobek." He gestured to the monster's mayor chain. "To beat the monster, we have to get the necklace off. Then the _petsuchos_ should shrink back into a regular crocodile."

"I hate the word _should_," I muttered. There'd been too much of that in my life already. "Fine. I'll get the necklace. You keep him occupied."

"Why do _I_ get to keep him occupied?"

"Because you're more annoying." And apparently more appetizing. I tacked that on as an afterthought. "Just try not to get eaten again, okay?"

The crocodile roared and charged. I dived out of the way and ran towards its flank, hoping to somehow get a handhold and dive on. The kids had rejoined the battle, with their seemingly never-ending supply of water balloons. Carter was standing frozen, right before the crocodile. I was about to yell to him when he changed.

Blue energy crackled around him, enveloping him and forming the shape of a twenty-foot-tall bird-headed man. When he moved, the thing did as well.

I yelped. "Holy Hera! What in Hades is that?" Calling on my two least favorite Olympians always helps in times of trouble. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't think Carter heard me as he was too busy grappling with a forty-foot-long crocodile inside his twenty-foot-tall bird man.

I had officially lost it.

Meanwhile, the crocodile picked up Carter like he was a toy and flung him straight into the roof of the nearest house.

Oops.

I really wondered what the mortals were making of this. Even a crazed truck driver couldn't explain away this amount of destruction.

Carter stood up and brushed himself off, completely fine. I felt the need to say something.

"What the creeping crud is _that_? You're inside a giant glowing chicken-man!"

"Hawk!" he shot back, bracing himself for another attack from the crocodile. "A little help here?"

_Crap._ I sprinted towards the monster, trying to work out a quick plan. As I did, Carter nailed it in the nose with a good solid, glowing, blue foot, making it sneeze.

I leapt for the creature's tail, praying to all the gods that I didn't slip or lose my footing. _That_ would have been embarrassing. Somehow I stayed on, jumping up its back and working my way towards its neck. The water flowing from between its scales didn't bother me at all.

The crocodile caught Carter's giant sword in his mouth like a dog and began to play tug-of-war with it. Carter pulled back, but his warrior was flickering and he looked exhausted.

"Percy!" he called. "Any time now!"

I managed to grab the necklace and swung Riptide, but that did nothing. Maybe it was Imperial Gold? No, Carter insisted the monster was Egyptian. I hit the same spot over and over again, but nothing.

Carter's face was strained; he couldn't keep the bird-man-thing up for much longer. "Hurry!"

"Can't cut it!" I gasped.

"A clasp. There's gotta be one." The monster tried its level best to wrest the sword from his grasp. "There – on the bottom!"

I swung myself down, using the gold links as foot holds, trying to reach the clasp. Unfortunately, Carter's chicken warrior chose that moment to disappear, dumping a panting Carter in the middle of the street. The crocodile's new toy suddenly vanished as well, making him tumble head over heel backwards, rolling over a Honda and nearly flattening me.

Somehow I hung on, deactivating Riptide and stowing it away in my pocket. I reached the clasp, expecting it to just be a clip. Instead, it was an oval-shaped thing with Egyptian hieroglyphics. Something was definitely wrong here.

The crocodile still hadn't noticed me. Instead, he was fixed on Carter, a growling sound vibrating up from his stomach. _Shit_. I drew my sword and hacked at the chain again, but Riptide just glanced off each time. Water dripped from between its scales, splashing onto the road.

Carter was struggling to stay on his feet, frantically shaping something in his hands. I had to do something. The crocodile took a step towards him, snorting.

"Percy?" He sounded worried.

"I can't unlock the clasp!" I shouted back. I gave up with Riptide, stowing it away again, and thumped the symbols with my fist. "Some kind of magic?"

Carter's eyes rose to the skies, as if he was going to say '_no duh!'_ but at that moment the crocodile lurched forward. I was too taken aback to call out to him; all I could do was hold on to the necklace.

His face froze in shock, but he ducked out of the way and threw something small towards the crocodile's nostrils. It shook its head violently, hissing, finally shaking me loose. I rolled away from the monster's feet, jumping up just in time to yank Carter out of the way of its rampage.

We somehow ended up at the opposite end of the cul-de-sac, surrounded by the mortal kids, some of whom still brandished Super Soakers.

"You okay?" I asked Carter. He was sweating and looked absolutely shattered. Meanwhile the crocodile stampeded through yet another house.

He managed to nod, waving away one of the kids when he tried to offer him a water pistol. Speaking of the children…

"You guys," I told them. "You hear those sirens? You've got to run down the road and stop the police." I had no idea how they were going to do that. "Tell them it's too dangerous up here. Stall them!"

They raced off, arguing about what they were going to tell the police. Beside me, Carter swallowed weakly. "Good call."

I nodded, only half listening. The crocodile was still trampling houses and cars, concentrating on whatever Carter had sent up its nostril.

"You've got some moves, Carter," I admitted grudgingly. "Anything else in your bag of tricks?"

"Nothing," he panted. "I'm running on empty. But if I can get to that clasp I think I can open it."

I understood that. This wasn't my monster. It never had been. It didn't come from my world; it wasn't mine to kill. Carter had the power, whatever that may be, to defeat it, whereas I didn't.

The crocodile appeared to be recovering, its yellow eyes slowly focusing on the two of us. Any minute it would gather itself and attack. Dark water still trickled down its body. _Water…_

The sirens were coming closer all the time. Unless I wanted to be all over the new yet again, we had to move fast. "Guess it's my turn to distract the croc. Get ready to run for the necklace."

His eyes boggled. "You don't even have your sword. You'll die!"

If only he knew. "Just run in there as soon as it starts."

"As soon as _what_ starts?"

The monster sniffed and sneezed, shooting some little thing out of his nostril and over the houses. He turned to us, eyes glowing, and roared.

I stepped forward, raising my arms, fixing the crocodile with a glare. I hadn't done this for ages, but it couldn't be that bad, could it?

The crocodile cocked its head, as if it was trying to work out what exactly I was doing. It soon decided on _human offering itself as tasty snack_. I closed my eyes and called to the water, expecting at any moment to become lunch.

The brackish water responded to me, swirling around faster and faster, whipping up into a huge spiral that covered the entire road. The monster wasn't able to reach me. It was all it could do to keep its footing.

I cracked my left eye open to check on Carter. Somewhere to the side of me, I saw his form shimmer and change, collapsing in on himself this time. A hawk soared into the air from where he'd been standing.

Now I'd really seen it all. He must know Frank.

The water was becoming heavier and heavier, resisting me more. I gritted my teeth and concentrated on keeping it moving. "Any time now." I gasped, not expecting him to hear me.

It was harder to keep up the hurricane now. The crocodile took a step towards me, fighting against the flow. I spotted a now-human Carter swinging from the necklace, and yelled in frustration. This monster would _not_ get the better of me.

Carter punched the clasp, but nothing happened. The monster turned towards me, growling. My hurricane began to slow, and I fell to my knees, blinking sweat out of my eyes. My head began to throb, and there was a crippling pain in my stomach. Doing this for much longer could be incredibly dangerous.

I dropped to the pavement, gasping. My storm ended, black water slopping back onto the road or blowing out into the swamp. The crocodile roared and crouched, ready to charge. I couldn't do a thing to stop it.

A long _CLANG_ worked its way past my daze. I looked up to see Carter being flattened by a necklace, which was shrinking even as I watched. A few feet away, a baby crocodile squeaked in confusion.

I staggered over to Carter. His karate pyjamas were torn and stained with mud and water. His hair was flattened on one side of his head and, for some strange reason, he was covered in feathers. To be fair, I probably didn't look much better.

"Nice work," I grinned. "Get the necklace."

"The necklace?" He looked as tired as I felt, but he groped around on the pavement and brought up a smaller gold chain that could now only just about fit a normal crocodile. "The – the monster. Where-?"

I gestured to the baby croc, now looking as if it was wondering how on earth it had got there.

Not for the first time, his eyes nearly popped out of his head. "You can't be serious."

"Maybe somebody's abandoned pet?" I suggested. "You hear about them on the news sometimes." I honestly could not think of another reason for the crocodile to be there.

The sirens stopped, like someone had killed the engines on the police cars, and we could hear the kids shouting, "Up here! There's these two guys!" The Mist had apparently made them decide that it was us who trashed their quiet lane and not a lunatic delivery man.

I grunted, picking up the mini croc and holding its mouth shut in case it remembered how tasty we'd looked five minutes ago. "We have to go. You coming?"

We leaped over the garden fence and jogged back down to the swamp.

* * *

**Once again, sorry it took so long! My computer was kind of confiscated. But thank you all for being so patient and for your amazing reviews.**

**Enjoy!**

**-Ciara**


	5. I Get a Hotline To Brooklyn

**So, this is the last chapter…..**

**Thank you for all your kind reviews, thank you, thank you. Thank as well for all the views I've had. Over 1,000 views on this piece of shit? Wow.**

**I find it so easy to write in Percy's POV. Anyone able to guess why? Of course, it's nothing to do with the fact that we've had five more books on 'How to Write in Percy's POV' than we have for any other demigod. No, nothing like that at all.**

**With regards to my timings, I'm setting this after The Blood of Olympus. I'm well aware that Rick set his before The Lost Hero, but mine isn't, ok? :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the PJO/HoO or KC characters. If I did…I shudder at the thought…**

**Finally, have any of you read the Charlie Bone books? Tancred Torsson is Jason Grace. Your argument is invalid.**

* * *

Soon enough, we were both in a small restaurant near the swamp. Carter had given me a few sips of nectar (which really confused me). Our wounds began to heal. The mini crocodile was tethered to a tree nearby, just until we figured out what to do with it.

My shirt was torn and shredded, and I had leaves and grass all through my hair. Carter was still covered in feathers, and his shoes squelched with every step. Of course, I was still perfectly dry.

The local news flashed up on the small television in the corner. Apparently, a build up of pressure in sewers underneath the cul-de-sac had become too much, leading to an explosion with caused several houses to collapse and given out enough discoloured water to cause a flood. Incredibly, nobody had been injured. Some kids were telling some pretty tall stories about the Long Island Swamp Monster and two crazy teenagers, but the mortal police had it all figured out. They're just that clever, although the reporter did comment that it looked like 'something rather large had sat on the houses'. Carter blushed.

"A freak sewer accident," I grinned. "That's a first."

Carter snorted. "For you, maybe. I seem to cause them everywhere I go." I remembered about a year back, when the whole of Brooklyn had been lit up with fires, supposedly from escaping sewer gas, but none of them had burnt anybody. Had that been Carter?

"Cheer up," I told him. "Lunch is on me." I fished into my pockets and pulled out Riptide, but nothing else. Not so much as one golden drachma. "Oh…oh, actually…can you conjure up money?"

He rolled his eyes, but good-naturedly pulled out a wad of cash. In no time, we each had a cheeseburger and fries. I would have preferred pizza, of course, but burgers were nearly as good.

"Cheeseburgers," I announced. "Food of the gods."

"Agreed." But we shared a look, and I could tell we were both wondering the same thing. Food of _which_ gods?

"So, the necklace," I asked, anxious to change the subject. "What's the story?"

Carter took a breath, like he was going to say something, but stopped himself. I understood how he was feeling. We were on the edge of something huge here. Our whole lives could change, just like that. If anyone found out about this, it would be even worse than when the Romans had attacked Camp Half-Blood. This was something completely different, with not only demigods, or whatever Carter was, fighting, but fully fledged gods as well. Worse even than the Titan War or the Giant War. This went across beliefs.

Finally Carter began to explain. "The necklace is enchanted. Any reptile that wears it turns into the next _petsuchos_, the Son of Sobek. Somehow that little crocodile got it round its neck."

A little ball of dread began to uncurl inside me. "Meaning someone _put_ it round his neck."

He nodded slowly.

I narrowed my eyes. "So, who?"

"hard to narrow it down." He shrugged. "I've got a lot of enemies."

I snorted. "Sure, I can relate to that. Any idea _why_, then?" But I already had a good guess.

"Someone wanted to cause trouble," he said quietly, almost like he didn't want to. "I think maybe…maybe they wanted to cause trouble that would get our attention. _Both_ of our attention."

My cheeseburger was finished, and that made me sad. I scowled, drawing _theta_ in my ketchup with a fry. Octavian? No, he wasn't that refined. If he wanted the Egyptians wiped out, he would just declare war like he'd done before.

But there was a link here. An Egyptian monster, with a Greek name, that should be in Carter's area, probably Brooklyn, was instead on Long Island. Something was wrong.

"The monster had a Greek name," I muttered, half to myself. "It was eating pegasi in my…"

"In your home turf," he finished for me. "Some kind of camp, judging from your T-shirt."

I squirmed in my seat, feeling incredibly mean for what I was about to tell him. "Look, Carter. You're not nearly as annoying as I thought. And we made a great team today, but-"

"You don't want to share your secrets," he interrupted. "Don't worry. I'm not going to ask about your camp. Or the powers you have. Or any of that."

I was intensely relieved, but tried not to let him see. "You're not curious?"

He laughed. "I'm _totally_ curious. But until we figure out what's going on I think it's best we keep some distance. If someone – _something_ – unleashed that monster here, knowing it would attract both of our attention-"

"Then maybe that someone wanted us to meet," I put in. This was an even worse attempt to unite two sides than Hera swapping me and Jason. Or maybe it was exactly that. Maybe we weren't supposed to unite. Maybe we were supposed to become enemies. Either way, someone had done it on purpose.

"But we've met now," I protested. "You know I'm out here on Long Island and I know you live in Brooklyn. If we went searching for each other-"

"I wouldn't recommend it," he agreed. "Not until we know more. I need to look into some things on, uh, my side – try to figure out who was behind this crocodile incident."

My intuition flickered. There was more than just him? "All right. I'll do the same on my side." I gestured to the necklace, now poking from the top of his bag. "What do we do about that?"

"I can send it somewhere safe," he said sincerely. "It won't cause trouble again. We deal with relics like this a lot."

That confirmed my suspicions. "_We_? Meaning, there's a lot of…you guys?" Whatever they were.

All I got in reply was stony silence.

"Fine!" I raised my hands in surrender. "I didn't ask. I have some friends back at Ca-" _Crap_, I'd almost let it slip. "-uh, back on my side who would love tinkering with a magic necklace like that." I grinned, thinking of Leo. "But I'm going to trust you here. Take it." The strange symbols would only cause more questions.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks. Good."

"And the baby crocodile?"

He snorted. "You want it?"

I laughed, thinking of the pegasi riots three nights ago. "Gods, no."

He nodded. "I can take it, give it a good home. Yeah, it'll fit right in."

Which only left me wondering what exactly he had at his home. "Okay, well…good working with you, Carter." I held out my hand. And I meant it. We'd worked together brilliantly, and it had been awesome.

We shook hands. I half expected something to happen, like thunder or anything like that, but nothing did. Just a normal handshake between two completely abnormal people.

"You too, Percy."

I started to walk away, but then had a horrible thought. "One more thing. If this somebody, whoever threw us together…if he's an enemy to both of us – what if we need each other to fight him." _OR her_, I could imagine Annabeth saying. "How do I contact you?" I was guessing Iris-messages didn't work for the Egyptology department.

He seemed to think deeply for a few seconds, then focused on me again. "Can I write something on your hand?"

"What, like your phone number?" This was taking things a little too far, and I didn't own a cell, anyway. They were banned at camp for being major monster attractors.

That threw him. "Uh…well, not exactly." He pulled out a wooden stick and a pot of ordinary black ink. Well, ordinary until he drew an eye on my hand and it glowed blue. Then it disappeared.

"Just say my name," he instructed. "and I'll hear you. I'll know where you are and I'll come meet you. But it only works once, so make it count."

I stared at my smooth, unmarked hand. "I'm trusting you that this isn't some kind of magical tracking device."

"Yeah," he responded. "And I'm trusting that when when you call me you won't be luring me into some sort of ambush."

I stared him down for a few moments, then grinned. "Fair enough. See you when I see you, C-"

"Don't say me name!"

"Just kidding." I winked at him. "Stay strange, my friend." Of course, he probably thought I could hardly talk.

I stepped outside, breathing in the fresh air for a moment. The baby crocodile squeaked from where it was tied. I whistled for Blackjack.

* * *

Half an hour later, Blackjack and I landed back in camp, having shared a dozen box of glazed donuts. The second we touched down, Annabth came storming up to us. "Where have you been, Seaweed Brain?"

"Donut shopping?" I offered hopefully. That didn't seem to cut it.

"What, you think the Big House doesn't have a TV?" She was getting angrier with every sentence. "Did you think we'd just miss the sewer explosion or whatever you caused this time? You're lucky you're not on the run from police! _Again_."

Over her shoulder, I could see Jason and Frank wincing, with Hazel and Piper making sympathetic faces. Leo and the Stolls, however, were laughing their little heads off.

"_Percy!_" she growled. "What. Happened?"

A thousand memories flashed through my mind, but I just shrugged. "Nothing much. Found the monster, lost the monster, found it again, fought it, made a hurricane in a cul-de-sac, killed it."

Annabeth paled. She looked like she was going to faint. She also knew when I was lying. "You…you…in front of mortals…you-"

"Yeah," I told her, taking her hand. "Now, come up to the Big House with me. I have a feeling Chiron will want to hear all about this."

I had decided. I would tell Annabeth, no one else. Chiron must know about something Egyptian, because he always says it's not a great idea for us to go to Brooklyn, and he knew about the Romans for millennia.

She nodded weakly. "Right…let's go." We turned towards the big white house together.

What had happened that day scared the pants off me, and, to be honest, it still does. Someday, sometime soon, I'm going to have to say his name. He'll wake up one night to hear me whispering his name, and it will confirm that we have an enemy. An enemy to both of us.

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**Ooohhhhh…dun-dun-DUN!**

**Rick had better write another one of these pretty soon, or just generally hurry up and write ****_anything_**** fairly soon.**

**Thanks for your views and reviews, as ever.**

**Enjoy!**

**-Ciara**


	6. Author's NoteMany Thanks

**Just a quick A/N to say thank you so so much for the great welcome this story received! It was only my second fix, so I wasn't really expecting much. One thing I didn't expect was 15 amazing reviews, 14 follows and faves, and over 2,400 views on my crappy little story. **

**Sorry to those of you who were expecting another chapter, I may well do another Carter/Percy story. Alternatively, you could go and harass Uncle Rick to actually do something with his life and give us a story.**

**Thanks again for every single one of you's amazingness!**

**Much love,**

**-****_Ciara_**


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